Aamir Khan Turns Lean and Mean for Dhoom 3

In July 2012, photographs of Aamir Khan surfaced showing the actor looking strikingly lean — the visible beginning of a physical transformation for his role in Dhoom 3.

The film, the third installment of the hit action franchise, cast Khan against type as the antagonist opposite Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra's familiar cop duo. The role demanded a fitter, sharper physique, and the lean look in the photographs suggested the transformation was well underway.

It was familiar territory for Khan, whose reputation as Bollywood's "Mr. Perfectionist" was built as much on his physical commitments as on his choice of films. He had bulked up for Ghajini (2008), gone soft and middle-aged for 3 Idiots (2009), and each time the transformation had become part of the film's story before the film itself released.

The timing was notable. In 2012, Khan was also hosting Satyamev Jayate, the television show that had turned him from a film star into a national conversation-starter on social issues. The lean Dhoom 3 look arrived just as the first season of that show was winding down — a reminder that Khan operated in two registers at once: the conscience of the nation's drawing room, and the box-office heavyweight preparing for the year's biggest action spectacle.

Dhoom 3 released in December 2013 and became one of the highest-grossing Indian films of its time.